The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Blue Toon bare bones for ‘game of century’
Peterhead chairman Rodger Morrison would have relished drawing Aberdeen in the League Cup had it come at any other time.
The Blue Toon, who host the Dons tomorrow, have had well-documented struggles trying to get players through the door this summer.
Manager Jim McInally has made no secret of his frustrations at the pace of the transfer market. A squad which saw 13 players depart in the summer has been left severely short-handed for a game against a Premiership side.
Peterhead did not have a goalkeeper in the building until yesterday afternoon. Lenny Wilson and Brett Long both departed in the summer and, despite testing trialists during pre-season, none cut the mustard.
Admirably, McInally and his assistant Davie Nicholls have been keen not to just hand out deals for the sake of it. They do not want to compromise quality for quantity.
But the scale of their rebuild is laid bare by the fact that even with eight summer signings, they are still well short of bodies.
Peterhead will be without the suspended Jason Brown this weekend, as well as injured pair Russell McLean and Andy McCarthy.
For a televised cup game in front of a sell-out crowd, the preparation has been far from ideal for the League 1 side.
“It’s just come at the wrong time for us playerwise,” said Morrison. “There’s always a keen interest to see new signings and it will be an interesting game. I just wish we were in a better place. We’ve got the basics of a good squad together. But Ryan Strachan is not fit yet, Andy McCarthy was stretchered off last weekend and Jason Brown is serving a ban.
“The market (for transfers) is not only tight but the merry-go-round of managers at clubs means it’s hard for them to make decisions on players.
“I don’t think it would be a concern if it was just for the League Cup. I think we’ll be all right after the next few weeks.”
Competitive fixtures between the Dons and Peterhead are rare. The last time the two met in any competition was nearly 100 years ago, with Aberdeen thumping Peterhead 13-0 in a Scottish Cup tie in 1923.
Pre-season friendlies between the two sides have taken place down the years, but since the League Cup groups were brought in a few seasons ago, the Dons have always been in Europe and not been included.
However, to have not been drawn against each other in any competition for the best part of a century is a remarkable bit of trivia, even to Morrison.
“It surprised me,” he added. “I mentioned to Jim about six weeks ago to try get Aberdeen up for a friendly, as they would normally be in Europe when we’d be looking for a game.
“He said to me that we might draw them in the League Cup and I had forgotten about the draw by the time it came around.
“It’s strange when we have played every other Premiership side that it’s as long as it has been. It came as quite a shock.”
The sell-out crowd of more than 3,000 will be a welcome boost to the club coffers and, while the money from being screened on Premier Sports is less than it would be for a Scottish Cup tie, it is a help nonetheless.
Work on the squad will continue over the coming weeks in preparation for the start of the League 1 season.
Morrison added: “It’s part-and-parcel of football. Part of the problem we had is a big turnover of players. Some of it was Jim wanting to move players on but Grant Savoury and Scott Brown decided to move on.
“Thirteen players is a lot and it would have been hard anyway, but it’s been harder this time for getting decisions. I think we’ll be all right but you do want to put on a good showing for the first home game against Aberdeen.”